School's Out (Of The Question)
by oneiromancer242
Summary: Flashback : Magda tries to help her son after he has finally pulled one stunt too many and been expelled from school. It turns out, Peter is a lot more like his mother than previously thought.
1. Chapter 1

"One more chance, that's all I'm asking" Magda pleaded. "Come on, he's fourteen – he'll grow out of all this"

To her intense dismay the Principle shook his head, leaned a little further over his desk and tried to give her a comforting smile. It looked insincere, but she could hardly mind that given that her own pleasant smile was so utterly false at that moment.

"I'm sorry, Ms Maximoff, but enough really is enough. We've put up with too many of Peter's little incidents now. He has to go"

"But…"

"You heard him Magda" the other woman sat beside her snapped, "Your boy's a menace to society. If you ask me he's being let off *very* lightly, I could press charges you know!"

"He's a child!" Magda snapped back, "And your son was *bullying* him!"

"There's no bullying at my school" the Principle told her smoothly, "Mrs Carmichael's quite within her rights to take this matter to the police, you should be very grateful that she's –"

"GRATEFUL?!" Magda's fraying temper finally snapped, jabbing a finger in the direction of the other mother, "Allan's made my son's life a living hell ever since he came back to this school, he pushed him and pushed him and –"

"Allan has been BURNED!" Mrs Carmichael hissed, "He didn't deserve that. Your kid's crazy, you need to take him someplace before he kills someone!"

"Ladies, please…" the Principle held up his hands for peace, "Mrs Carmichael, you are welcome to take any further action you want, but all I can do is remove the problem. Ms Maximoff, I'm afraid this isn't under discussion. Peter will not be coming back to this school"

"What about his education?" she asked in a quieter voice, "his future?"

"With all due respect, Peter's hardly a star student. He missed a great deal in those seven months he was out sick you know. It may be better for him to be home-schooled. At any rate I'm afraid his future is no longer my concern"

Magda nodded. Rose from her chair, gathered up her handbag and carefully pushed her chair in with all the dignity she could muster.

"Thank you, Principle Weeks," she said quietly, "I won't take up any more of your time"

It took all the self-control she had to walk calmly away and not slam the door behind her, gritting her teeth in rage and clenching her fist hard on the strap of her bag as she made her way back to the car. Even from a distance, the two children inside could see that the meeting had not gone well by any definition of the word. Thumping down hard in the driver's seat and just breathing for a moment or two before Wanda had asked

"Is he still suspended?"

"No" her mother replied quietly, fixed her gaze on her son in the rear-view mirror, "He's expelled."

"I'm WHAT?!"

"Expelled, done, finished with that school, out on your ass, clear enough for you? Have you got that through your head now? You are not going to that school any more. Ever."

"But-"

"But nothing. First thing Monday I'll call St. Saviour's, this is ridiculous…. What is that you've got there?!"

"McNuggets.." he said in a small, thoroughly chastised voice, offered her the box, "You want one?"

Magda sighed, rubbed her eyes gently.

"Did you pay for those, Peter?"

"Yes…." He said, put on his most innocent eyes, "Sort of.."

She started the engine, shook her head and sighed again. Pulling out of the car park in silence until she had finally given Peter another look in the rear-view and said

"You'll end up in a delinquent home one day if you're not careful, kid."

The journey had been silent for the rest of the way, Peter heading straight down to his room when they had arrived, Wanda walking round to collect Lorna from the babysitter down the street, Magda left alone sat at the kitchen table seriously considering the bottle of good vodka in the freezer that she'd been saving for a special occasion. She knew perfectly well that her son was no angel, but she still couldn't help feeling that after how hard he'd fought to get back to school, kicking him out like this just wasn't right. Nothing ever seemed to go in Peter's favour these days, and by extension hers.

They tried to have a normal evening together, but the dinner table was quiet and cheerless, even Lorna seeming subdued though she didn't really understand what was going on. Wanda toying with her food until at last she had pushed her plate over to her brother to finish, Peter himself looking glum and contrite and barely saying a word. Magda excused them from helping her wash up, sent them downstairs and soon heard the rapid pattering of table-tennis, though uncharacteristically not accompanied by the twins' bickering and laughter. Put Lorna to bed, and curled up on the sofa with that vodka.

Though it had undoubtedly been a rash, idiotic thing to do, she really couldn't find it in herself to blame Peter for flipping a lab table over on that Carmichael kid and his crony. She'd lost count of the number of times Peter had come home with his clothes ripped, or with scratches and bruises and split lips from scuffling with those boys. They teased him continually, had come up with a plethora of hurtful and insulting names for him that though he tried not to show it cut him to the bone. They would steal his homework on the odd occasion he'd actually done it, trip him in the halls, corner him at recess just to taunt him some more.

To his credit, Peter had stood it for months without once losing his temper in return. Still learning how to control the odd powers that had only recently emerged in him, he had been careful not to show them around others and never used them to get himself out of those situations, mostly because if they knew, it would just be something else to pick on. Had tried to hold his head up and bear it, though Magda knew full well that he would often come home from school and cry in his room for a while before he would feel up to spending any family time. Already hormonal and an emotional wreck who was still building his strength up after all that time so horrifically ill, she knew that this was the last thing Peter needed right now, standing and deciding to stop wallowing and make sure he was alright.

Wanda had crashed out on his bed, head resting on the open book in front of her, bare legs dangling off the side, so used to the noise down there by now that it didn't disturb her. Her brother was sat close by, feet kicking against the legs of his chair in time to whatever was blaring on his headphones, spotting his mother and removing the 'phones as she gently put her arms around him. Tried so very hard to keep his face neutral, though she could feel him shaking slightly against her.

"How're you feeling?" she asked, watched him dropping his eyes from her gaze, "Anything I can do?"

Peter shook his head, rested his hands over his mother's, couldn't help the little hitch in his breathing or the tears that started to spill out from under his lowered eyelids. Swiped them away with the heel of his hand as he turned to face her

"M'fine" he muttered, sniffed loudly, "I hate school anyway"

Magda felt her heart flutter uncomfortably the way it always did when her children were upset. Scooped him up tightly and held him close to her. He still felt so fragile, though much less so than this time last year when he'd been sicker than ever, so weak he couldn't get out of bed but still totally unable to sleep. Felt his arms curl around her back and just held him for a while until she had finally released him and tilted his face up to her with a finger, gently brushed a tear away.

"You want some ice cream?" she offered, "We've got Rocky Road. C'mon"

Peter allowed her to lead him upstairs, had pulled a blanket around himself by the time she returned from the kitchen, curled up tiny and miserable on the sofa. It hurt her terribly to see him like this, knowing that she'd done everything she could and still failed him.

"I didn't mean to hurt them, you know" he'd said at last, poked at a marshmallow with his spoon, "I just lost my temper. I didn't mean it"

"I know you didn't honey," she soothed, tucked his long hair behind his ear, "but you can't take it back now. That idiot Principle wouldn't budge, we've got to just handle this"

"But it's not fair!" he burst out, "They've been at me for months, I do one little thing and I get expelled!"

"It's not one little thing though is it now?" Magda smiled kindly, "It's all the little things"

"I get *bored*, Mom" he sighed, set the now-empty carton aside, "I can't help it"

"You can't help putting whoopee cushions on your teacher's seats? Or cutting class to go for pizza? Or pinning notes to people's backs? Or –"

"Okay, okay so I'm a crappy kid, I get it. But what am I supposed to do now, huh? Stay around the house all day? Mom, I'll drive you crazy. I can't do this. I only just got back, this is just.. argh it just SUCKS"

"I know. It does" She kissed his softly on the forehead, "after you worked so hard to get better too. I'm proud of you for that, Peter. You don't deserve this"

"What do I deserve?" he asked seriously. "Really? I get kicked out of everything. I can't help being this way Mom, I'd change if I could. I just wish just once someplace wouldn't kick me out or pick on me. I wish I knew what I could do"

"We'll think of something, hon." She told him soothingly, snuggled the blanket around him further, "It'll be okay, I promise"


	2. Chapter 2

Wanda pouted as hard as she could at her mother, seeming almost on the edge of stamping her foot

"But Mooooooooom…" she whined, "I'm sick! I really am!"

"You're not sick, and you're going to school, get your bag"

"Mom –"

"Wanda Maximoff I want you in that car in ten seconds. You are not staying home!"

"What about Peter though?" she pleaded, gazed at her mother with her huge dark eyes wide and appealing. Damn it, all her children really knew how to use those puppy-dog eyes. Sadly for her, Magda was very used to it by now and didn't relent.

"You can't stay home just because your brother is. Car, now"

Wanda slammed the door hard behind her, and Magda winced as she heard the car door slam just as hard. Glanced over her shoulder to see her son materialise behind her. Still in his pyjamas, she noticed, as if he'd decided if he wasn't going to school then he wasn't getting dressed. She fetched him a kind smile, which he tried to return though it looked a little wobbly round the edges.

"Go get yourself some breakfast," she told him, "I won't be long"

"I already had –"

"Go have some more, it's not like you don't need it" reaching out and squeezing her son's shoulder gently, "She'll be fine, Peter. Don't worry about her"

Finally left alone in the house save for his younger sister playing happily in the lounge, Peter sighed heavily and opened the refrigerator to take stock. Tried with all his might to push the whirlwind of intrusive thoughts to the back of his head and tell himself it wasn't so bad to be out of school. After all, he could catch all the morning cartoons now, could stay and play with Lorna and play table-tennis and raid the fridge whenever he felt like it – and that had to be better than sitting in classes getting bored out of his mind and counting the seconds until lunch. There were a lot of good things about being expelled, when he thought about it.

The trouble was, he couldn't help also thinking of how much this reminded him of the few months he'd had to spend at home, first because he felt too sick to go anywhere and then because he could no longer stand up. It had been months since he'd felt in any way ill now, but it was still painfully fresh in his mind how scared his Mom had looked, how worried Wanda had been, and how frightened he had been himself that he was going to die. Told himself it was all different now and that he didn't have to worry, that this was really kind of fun and better than school, but the thoughts were there nonetheless and with how crazy fast his mind went, he could hardly catch them before he was diving down into feeling anxious and low and tearful all over again. Grabbing a carton of heavy cream, a box of Fruit Loops, and a mixing bowl and taking it through to sit cross-legged in front of the television, hoping that at least it would distract him from himself. By the time he had finished the box of cereal and was sat playing blocks with Lorna, he'd come to a conclusion that had cheered him up quite a bit.

If everyone thought he was such a bad kid, why not be one?

It wasn't as if he'd intended to be a juvenile delinquent, it just sort of happened. In truth he really did just get so bored that he liked to liven things up with a couple of harmless pranks – more so since he'd come back. Even before he got sick he'd been an energetic, mischevious kid who liked to have a little fun, but now that he seemingly had this strange power, and now that sitting still was even more of a chore, the pranking had escalated along with a few other perhaps not-so harmless activities. Stealing, for example – simply too easy now that he could move faster than he could be perceived. Peter had only ever stolen food up until now, considered it to be helping his mother out to do so. It must cost a fortune to feed him after all, especially since he was still doing his damndest to gain some weight, and there were all those medical bills to pay off. If stealing food was easy, surely it would also be easy to steal other things? That skateboard with the cool silver wheels, for example, or the new Rush album he couldn't afford…

Really, why _not_? He had to do something with his time.

By the time his Mother had arrived home, Peter had pretty much come to the decision that being expelled might have been the best thing that had happened to him recently, giving him all the time in the world to have as much fun as he wanted. Nothing seemed out of bounds to him now, and he'd been feeling pretty cheerful until he caught sight of the look on his mother's face, sitting down hard on the sofa and fussing with his hair as he rested back against her knees. Quiet for a few minutes until he'd said

"Traffic bad? You were a while"

Magda sighed heavily, pulled him back against her in a hug

"I went to the other two schools in the area" she said, "Apparently, you're on some kind of a black list. They won't take you on"

Peter leaned round and smiled at her, squeezed her hand reassuringly

"S'okay, Mom. I'll be fine. What am I gonna learn in school anyway?"

"Everything you need to, hon!" she told him, exasperated, "You have to go to school – otherwise how will you ever get a job?"

"And what job's going to hire me?" he shrugged, the smile looking a little sad, "I'll just get fired or something"

"Oh, Peter…" she raised his hand to her lips, kissed it gently, "Don't think like that honey, your luck has to change some time"

"Mom, I've been kicked out of everything I've ever joined. I'm getting kinda used to it by now, besides, I'll find something to do" deprived of her playmate, Lorna flung herself at him brutally hard, grabbed one of his hands to fool with, "I can look after the Littlest, then you won't have to pay a babysitter, right?"

"Honey, I appreciate you being brave about this, but it's just so unfair on you! I don't want you to just stay at home and babysit, you should be out doing something with your life! Meeting people, making friends, doing –"

"I've never had any friends and you know it" he told her firmly, focussed on his baby sister instead of the hurt look he knew his mother would be wearing. It was the truth – somehow, even before this power had come on, he'd always been too different to really get along with anybody. Always hyperactive and flighty, always odd in some way, never part of any gang. Even when he'd still been allowed to play team sports he'd never got on with his teammates, despite the fact that he was obviously their most valuable player. He'd tried for years to be likeable, developed that quirky sense of humour and generosity of spirit in an effort to make others not feel he was just too weird to hang out with, but somehow he was still always the odd boy out. The crazy, twitchy kid with bad grades and unnatural silver hair. A few picked on him hard, most simply treated him as if he wasn't there. His twin sister had friends, and she tried her best to get them to have Peter along with them, but it never worked out. Eventually he'd leave them to have fun without him, feeling like he was spoiling things by Wanda's friends being forced to tolerate his presence.

Perhaps if Peter had been less good-natured, less inclined to taking the blame rather than resenting others, it would have been easier for Magda to see him so lonely. At least then she could have held him partially responsible, but the fact was that nobody gave Peter a fair chance, no matter what any of the few people who cared about him did to try to ease his life. Even now, though he must be terribly hurt by all this, he was happily playing Three Little Piggies with Lorna's toes, making her scream in delight at the tickles, not outwardly moping about things or getting angry.

"It has to get better for you one day, Baby Boy" she murmured. Peter glanced up at her, gave her half a smile that lacked the brilliance of his real one, "Somehow it has to"

"It will," he told her. She only half-believed him.

Leaving Peter and Lorna to play, Magda had set herself to cleaning up and letting her thoughts brew. She couldn't believe Principle Weeks had been so vindictive as to make sure that not only could Peter not go to his school, he couldn't go to *any* school, as if the man wanted to ruin his chances in life. She'd tried her only options, short of getting him a place at a school far away, and it seemed that once again she'd hit a wall. Yet something had to be done, she couldn't allow people to get away with treating her boy like this – as if he was some kind of freak, when he was just a little different. _She_ loved him the way he was, for all his oddness, and if others would only spend enough time around him to see his big heart and sweet nature, she was sure they would love him too. Just nobody seemed able to do that.

Scrubbing away at a burn mark on the countertop, the result of Peter and Wanda trying to bake a cake together (never again, she swore), Magda mulled over the idea that whilst there seemed nothing left to do to actually help Peter out of this situation, she could at least get some kind of justice for him. If nothing else, it would make them all feel a lot better if the people who'd done this didn't walk away without some kind of comeuppance. Slowly, she had begun to form a plan, and by the time Peter had come in to find out what else in the kitchen he could devour, she had been set on an idea that would be satisfying to them.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N : In case anyone's wondering where my Age of Ultron prompt got to - I'm working on it! It's just hard, as I've mentioned I don't really write Avengers. Stay tuned though, it'll happen.**

 **In the meantime if anyone has any prompts or ideas they will be gladly received :-)**

3.

"Kids!" Magda yelled down the stairs, "Up here, now!"

A moment later the thunder of both twins running up the stairs came, presenting themselves in the kitchen looking guilty as hell, having recognised that tone in their mother's voice that said both were in for it. To their surprise, she had smiled at them broadly and sat them at the table, pushed a wad of folded money over to Wanda, and took both their hands, squeezing tightly.

"Here's what's going to happen tonight" she told them, fixing each in turn with a stern look, "You're going to go out and have some fun. Wherever you go, you're going to stay there until at least an hour after dark, and make sure plenty of people see you there. Make sure you're noticed – Peter, if you have to cause a bit of mischief to make certain you're seen, that's okay. You've got thirty dollars there, I don't expect any change"

The twins exchanged a long, confused look, before Wanda had looked at the money laying on the table and said

"Mom, are you feeling okay?"

"Never better sweetheart. I just want you to enjoy yourselves somewhere nice and busy and public, okay?"

"With thirty dollars?!"

"You'll be late for supper, and Peter will need snacks. Wanda it's not every day I'll hand you cash and tell you to have fun, why are you arguing with me?"

A moment later, Peter had finally caught on, gave his mother a huge grin and jumped up from the table, pulling Wanda behind him to fetch their shoes, still protesting a little but swept up in the whirlwind that was her twin.

"First stop, Hamilton Arcade, then Galaxy Burger – is that public enough, Mom?"

"Perfect" she told him with a smile, bent to hug them both at once. Within a few more minutes they were gone, Peter chattering excitedly in his confused sister's ear, talking her round to how much fun this would be and urging her on, leaving Magda to quietly prepare herself, drop Lorna off at the babysitter, and gather up everything she needed for the evening's excursion.

She'd never been a PTA member, never even thought of going to their meetings, one of which was in progress that night. She could see the lights in the gym going on as dusk started to fall, could well imagine the parents and teachers gathering around Tupperware boxes of home-baked cakes, one-upping each other about their beloved offsprings' academic and athletic prowess. The idea of all that thinly-veiled bitchery filled Magda with loathing, could never see herself as one of those mothers, even if they would all be astounded at the quality of her baking. You didn't have a little cookie-monster like her son around for long before you became a heck of a cook.

Then again, she'd never really seen herself doing something like this, either. Feeling faintly ridiculous as she tied a black scarf around her head, pulled it up high to hide her face. Covered her eyes with dark glasses just in case, and hoped she'd be able to see well enough to do what she needed to. Checked her handbag for her chosen weapons, and ducked down low as she saw Mrs Carmichael exiting a Buick in the parking lot. Magda let everybody gather and settle in before she had dared to get out of the car and close the door as quietly as she could.

Checking around the lot one last time before she began, she took a deep breath and set about her plan. Carefully pulled a small funnel and a paper sack out of her handbag and surreptitiously unscrewed the cap on the gas tank of the flashy automobile that she knew Principle Weeks drove. She'd seen him around town often enough, had never liked him driving this hulking expensive car, wondered what exactly he was doing to earn enough to keep it. Fumbling a very little with gloved hands, she carefully emptied most of the bag of fine sugar into the tank, replaced the gas cap, and let out the breath she wasn't aware she had been holding.

The tricky part was next, but now that she was halfway done Magda felt a little more exhilarated than ridiculous. Imagined herself as a spy engaged on an act of espionage rather than a suburban mother proving a point and getting well-deserved revenge. She wondered what her children would have thought if they had known that with the aid of only a wire coat-hanger and a great deal of calm patience, their mother was capable of opening the door of a Buick with a satisfying little click. She placed the funnel and the remains of the bag of sugar carefully on the shelf above the dash, where they were sure to be seen. Was incredibly glad that the Carmichael woman had parked so close to the Principle's car – there was no way he could miss the tools to ruin his engine on display in her car.

Finally done, Magda returned to her own car, drove a little way before she had to stop and sit for a while breathing in shuddery little gasps, hands shaking furiously, unable to hold the steering wheel. At last, the shivers had given way to a little giggle, then uncontrollable delighted laughter. A small part of her wondered if this was what going insane felt like. Most of her really could not care less. When at last she was calm, she had wiped tears of laughter from her eyes, removed her scarf and glasses, and driven home with a smile plastered on her face, careful to stop off for some groceries and carry the bag with her when she went to pick up Lorna.

The twins had arrived home not long after, both of them beaming and full of the joys of their evening's exploits, Wanda bearing a pink teddy bear that she had won in one of the crane games at the Hamilton. Magda was glad she was not so grown up at 14 that she was shy about expressing her delight at the fluffy, happy-looking toy, squeezing it to her and prattling on to her mother about their time out whilst Peter took a quick nap on the sofa. They'd even managed to bring her change, which she hadn't expected, and it seemed they had both had so much fun that no more questions about the strange evening had been asked.

Questions had waited until the following morning, when a loud, official knock had rattled the door, and Magda had favoured the police officer standing on her doormat with a gracious and lovely smile, invited him in, and happily called both the twins up to the lounge to speak to him. Peter hung back a little – though he knew he'd done nothing, he'd had one or two run-ins with cops already and didn't enjoy them. The officer beckoned him in, said sternly;

"Siddown kid. We need to have a talk"

"About what?" he looked scared, catching his mother's eye and receiving a comforting smile, "We didn't do anything"

"Sure, sure… to be honest, this is pretty much a formality" the officer admitted, "We had a report last night of an act of vandalism, and the victim was pretty quick to point the finger at you"

"Me?! What did I do man? Or what did I *not* do, since I haven't done *anything*?!"

"You've just been expelled, haven't you?"

"Ummm.. yeah…. But…"

"I imagine you're pretty mad about that, right?"

"Well…" Peter thought about it, said honestly, "I was, but not really now. That school sucked anyway"

"So you wouldn't like to maybe get your own back on anyone?" the officer asked, encouraged him with a smile, glanced at Wanda "Or maybe your sister wanted to make someone pay?"

"I don't know what you mean, Officer Sir" Wanda said sweetly, "I wouldn't do that for Peter, he probably deserved the expulsion"

As soon as the policeman had looked away, she gave Peter an apologetic smile – of course she didn't think that, but it seemed to be the right thing to say. He smiled back, reassured her that he realised that. After a few more questions, the officer had put his notebook away and stood to leave. Magda rose to her feet with him and said

"Hold on – aren't you even going to tell us what this is about?" turning on the motherly charm with all her might, "If my children are suspected of something I'd like to know what it is at least!"

"Someone tipped half a kilo of sugar into the Principle's gas tank last night" he told her. It was all Peter could do to control the giggle that suddenly bubbled up inside him at the thought, "Really Ms Maximoff, I wouldn't worry. We're pretty sure we know who did it, but she tried to finger your kids for it. I had to investigate"

He shrugged again, shared a little eyeroll with Magda who laughed in a relieved way, resisted the urge to ask more. As soon as the door had closed, she returned to the lounge with a smirk on her face, leaned against the doorframe. The twins stared at her, Wanda again in deep confusion, Peter with an amused look of pride.

"You sugared the tank?" he asked, "Cool"

"Me?" she put a hand to her chest in a show of affronted innocence, "Why of course not! It was Mrs Carmichael's car they found the bag of sugar in"

"Mom!" Wanda burst out, aghast, "What if you get caught?!"

"Women my age don't do that kind of thing, sweetie, and the two of you have a cast-iron alibi for the evening"

Peter let the giggle he'd been holding in go, soon joined by the two women, and had only laughed even harder the following day when Wanda had come back from school and excitedly reported that Mrs Carmichael had been thrown out of the PTA, and that Principle Weeks had shown up on a push-bike that morning. Though nothing had been officially said, the entire school was ablaze with the gossip. Magda had never heard anything more beautiful, pleased to see that Peter seemed much more himself after that. She'd try home schooling from now on, but after the weekend. Just now, all she wanted was to let him enjoy the tiny scrap of triumph that she had managed to claw back for him, and hope that she hadn't given him any ideas.


End file.
